C. Teonaht Verbs: -Rem, -Ned, and -Ndi

This page on Verbs gives information on the following topics:

1. The Infinitive/Gerund.

Teonaht verbs have an infinitive or rather gerundive suffix that, attached to its absolute form, turns it into a verbal noun: ke, "see/look," kerem, "looking," "to look"; tepro, "touch/feel," teproned, "feeling," "to feel"; hejvan, "be absent," hejvvandi, "being absent."

2. Prefixed Pronouns.

The absolute form, the one that is used as an active verb, is made by removing the gerundive suffix and prefixing the pronoun. It never shows any conjugation in verbs other than the copula or harem/anrem:

ry teo, "I run"; or rytteo, "I run."
ly pre, "she knows"; or lyppre, "she knows."
Sendlz Tebnar ravvõ, "Tebnar loves Sendl"; or Tebnar Sendlz loravvõ, "Tebnar, he loves Sendl."

Note that most of the absolute forms of verbs end in a vowel. Note, too, that the pronominal prefix can stand alone (a practice I try to adhere to for simplicity's sake) or it can become part of the verb--in which case, the stress most often becomes abnormal and has to be reflected in its spelling: ry teo; rytteo

3. Agent Status: Volitional and Non-Volitional.

The most outstanding feature of Teonaht verbs is the distinction they make in "agent status" which is reflected as well in the definite and indefinite articles accompanying the nominative. I have called this development the "split nominative" in Teonaht, but it actually starts with the verb. Verbs that confer agency, or "volitionality," on the subject are morphologically distinct from verbs that reflect non-agency, or "non-volitionality" on the part of the subject. The difference in the nominative forms of the articles has been noted already in the chapter on nouns. As I did with the subjects, I shall refer to these verbs as "volitional" and "non-volitional."

Volitional verbs can be either transitive or intransitive, as can non-volitional verbs, and my designation for these are: vt, "volitional transitive"; vi, "volitional intransitive"; nt, "non-volitional transitive"; and ni, non-volitional intransitive." These are largely semantic distinctions rather than syntactic ones, and they are reflected in the three suffixes:

4. The Three Major Verb Categories.

a. The -Rem Verbs

By far the oldest and most common of these verbs, the -rem verbs express agency, or "volitionality." They describe an act of will. An old exception is parem, dealt with in the next chapter:

atwarem, "walk, stride"; vi.
enyverem, "eat"; vt/vi.
euanrem, "go"; vi.
uajarem, "hate"; vt/vi.
uaflarem, "fly"; vi.
bettairem, "obtain"; vt.
derem, "do, act upon"; vt/vi.
teorem, "run"; vi.
vergorem, "give"; vt/vi.
ravvorem, "love"; vt/vi.
mrelmarem,, "mix"; vt.
obeuanrem, "pass over"; vt/vi.
taneuanrem, "leave," "depart"; vi.
hsobddomrem, "tunnel under"; vt.
etc.

b. The -Ned Verbs

These are verbs that express participancy or experience instead of agency: the subjects of these verbs do not actively will their deeds but "suffer" them, experience them, participate in them:

badoned, "suffer, endure"; nt/ni.
kebõned, "fall"; ni.
nenuoned, "live" (be alive); ni.
olaned, "become"; ni/nt.
kloikaned, "stumble"; ni.
atwaned, "work, run" (as in machinery); ni.
hmened, "be constrained to," "must." Modal.
kraikaned, "stop"; ni.
lahened, "forget" (involuntarily); nt/ni.
sõdaned, "boil, seethe." Said of liquids; ni.
edirmened, "sleep"; ni.
lisned, "get" (used with passives).
    "...picked up, driven, sold," etc.); ni.
fandrillisned, "dream"; nt/ni.
hsobllisned, "go under" "capitulate," "be beaten"; ni.
meueluoned, "fall silent"; ni.
tafwolisned, "get hurt." ni.
taitaned, "laugh," "be amused by"; ni. teproned, "feel," "perceive." nt.
ouaned, "hear" (something involuntarily); nt.
Etc.

The Ambivolitional Verbs:

In addition to these sets of verbs, there is a category of verb that I call "ambi-volitional" (av.) which can take either an agent or an experiencer depending on semantics and context, and which receive either the -rem or the -ned suffix accordingly. These are most often found in our "perception" verbs, but they involve other verbs as well. NOTE: in tenses other than the simple present, the -ned forms leave a trace of themselves in the prefixual tense particles (nel- instead of el-), reducing ambiguity. Where there is no prefixual particle (as in the simple present), the "n" is left on the absolute form of the verb. I stress this rule in the paradigms I give further on. To the ambi-volitional verbs, now:

kerem, "look at," "watch"; vt.
kened, "see" (involuntarily); nt.
     il aoto elry ke; "I watched the car."
     il aoto nelry ke; "I saw the car" (note the "n" in the prefixed tense particle).

ouarem, "listen to"; vt.
     il auto elry oua; "I listened to, or for, the car."
ouaned, "hear" (involuntarily); nt.
     il aoto ry ouan; "I heard the car" (note the vestigial "n" at the end of the verb).

teprorem, "feel," "finger," "touch"; vt.
     Lõ tefar ely tepro; "she touches his face";
teproned, "feel" (an internal state, a response to a stimulus); nt.
     La tepre nelo tepro; "he felt her touch."

õlirem, "to sniff, smell" (voluntarily); vt.
     il pyttela nelry oli, "I smelled the flower."
õlined, "to smell" (involuntary); nt.
     il perpwe tsobkkwecy nelo tal õlin, "he could smell the cooking fish."

mahomrem, "to taste," "sip"; vt.
     Marua il zoyzod ely õ lehhendel mahom; "Mary sampled the stew with pleasure."
mahomned, "to taste" (sensation); nt.
     glehd lo mahon, "he tastes blood" (note substitution of "m" with "n").

In addition to the above, there are also a number of ambi-volitional verbs that express either volitional or non-volitional response to stimulus, like "laugh"; this can be conceived as a response to a hilarious stimulus, or a deliberate expression of scorn, making our common distinction between "laugh with" and "laugh at":

taitafrem, "laugh at" (scornfully); vt/vi.
taitafned, "laugh" (a stimulus); nt/ni.

tablysarem, "beweep," "mourn" (something); vt/vi.
tablysaned, "weep," "cry" (because sad); nt/ni.

wyhstarem, "shout," "cry out against"; vt/vi.
wyhstaned, "shout" (out of surprise); nt/ni.

laherem, "ignore"; vt.
lahened, "forget"; nt.

kraikarem, "stop" (something); vt.
kraikaned, "stop" (involuntarily); ni.

There is some overlap, though, in this construction with another wherein you add a special suffix volitional suffix, -marem, which indicates "compulsion": water boils (sodaned), but you can "boil" an egg (sodarem); you also "make boil" an egg: sodamarem. This construction is explained in the chapter on "Alchemies."

c. The -Ndi Verbs

These are "stative" verbs, many of them having no exact equivalent in English because they were formed originally from adjectives. They express states of being. New adjectives, in the form of the -ent/-ant words, have been made from them. They are all intransitive, but despite being stative they are not all non-volitional, and one needs to memorize their agent status. Some of them are ambi-volitional, but don't reflect this semantics in their form, and this makes them especially difficult. Note that pronunciation of the final "i" is like a schwa:

hejvvandi, "be absent"; avi.
   (pronounced hezh-VAND-uh:
   /hEZ'van'd@/
   adjective: hejvant, "absent."
vannendi, "be/fall sick," ni.
    from old adj. fan, "slow";
   new adj. vanent, "sick."
vlarendi, "be loud," "bray"; avi.
   from old adj. blar, "loud";
   ne adj. vlarent, "brash."
heljjendi, "be happy," "rejoice." avi.
   heljent, "joyous."
dõvvendi, "be happy, rejoice, but in a silly way; vi.
   old adj. dov; "happy," "foolish";
    new adj. dovent, "merry," "silly."
ahdkkendi, "be dead"; ni.
   adj. adhkent, "dead."
jõvvandi, "be born"; ni.
   old adj. jõvin, "young," now "youth"; new adj. "jõvant."

A common witticism:
nijjõvin dõvan
"Youth make merry."

dõvnaka jõvan
"A fool is born."

herggendi, "be proud, put on airs"; vi.
   adj. haughty. jenddepndi, "be modest," "demure"; avi.
   adj. jenddepnt, "modest."
tokdi, "be cruel"; avi.
   old adj. toyk, "sharp;
    new adj. cruel.
nemmindi, "be swift, hasten"; avi.
   old adj. nimra, "swift";
   new adj. nimint, "hastening."
rõhhõndi, "be cold," "shiver," be reluctant," "slow" (to do something); avi.
   rõhhõnt, "reluctant," "cold."
rõnnõndi, "keep a secret," "remain silent"; avi.
   old adj. rõnin, "secret";
   new adj. rõnont, "silent."
dorribndi, "be hot, swelter, lust"; avi.
   old adj. torib, "hot";
   new adj. dorribnt, "lustful."
dalbbrendi, "know how to"; vi.
   modification of talrem, "be able to";
   new adj.dalbrent, "brilliant," "clever."
hmehhilni, "be silent," "demure,"
"refuse" (to do something); avi
   adj. hmehhilt, "adamant." perrimbi, "be present," "exist"; avi
   a modification of parem, "here."
herrendi, "be beyond, elude"; avi
   herent, "hiding."
bõvindi, "be blue," "be the color blue,"
   "be clear, be cold and lofty"; avi
   old adj, bov, new, bovint, "lofty," "unemotional," "logical."
myeebndi, "be the color red, be angry,
   "be sanguine and healthy" avi
   old adj. myeebi, "red"; new adj. myeebnt, "blushing."

5. Conjugation: The Active Voice.

Nothing could be simpler than conjugation in Teonaht, were it not for all the tense and aspect endings and the order that they must follow in relationship to one another. This makes memorizing verb forms a nightmare. But unlike most Indo-European verbs, Teonaht verbs don't undergo inflection to express number and person; these are expressed in the subjects and pronouns that precede them--except where the rules dictate that verbs should have suffixes (in the subordinant clauses, and in combination with the aspectual affixes).

a. Proclitic Pronouns

These pronouns are many and sundry, as are the affixes. Pronouns will often prefix the verb in the simple present, changing pronunciation and spelling.

Example: meueluoned, "fall silent" /me'jEljonEd/ (may-EL-yoh-ned);
ymeueluo, "I fall silent" /i'mejEljo/ (ee-MAY-el-yo).

b. Ubiquitous "Law of Detachability"

This characteristic is eliminated with the detachment of the tense particles, which in turn prefix the pronoun.

Example: nelry meuueluo, "I fell silent" /'nElri me'jEljo/ (nel-ree may-EL-yo): Literally: "past-I fell silent"--suffix -(n)el (meueluonel (pron. may-EL-yo-nel), detaches from the end of the verb and prefixes the pronoun.

This may seem confusing, but it isn't: it's just another example of the Law of Detachability: wherever there's a suffix, remove it and make a prefix. Now, some paradigms for the simple tenses in the active voice. These function much like our indicatives:

c. Tense in the active voice: i. Simple (and Progressive) Present.

For a review of the nominative pronouns, visit that page again. Note that only the nominative forms are prefixual, and of those, only the singular and plural (the dual forms don't prefix or take the prefixual tense particles). For convenience, I've separated pronominal prefix from verb; most Teonim conjoin them in their spelling (as shown in the second form).

The present tense has no suffixual or prefixual tense particles. It also makes no distinction between simple present and progressive. You "touch, fall silent, or are absent" and you are also "touching, falling silent, and being absent." If immediacy has to be expressed, then the adverb mal, "now," is used: y mal ennyve, "I at this moment eat." Below are three paradigms taken from the -rem, -ned, and -ndi forms respectively:

TEPROREM, "touch," vt:

Singular Plural
y tepro, "I touch"
yttepro            		 tsõ tepro, soys tepro, "we touch" (excl/incl)
tsõttepro, soysttepro
fy tepro, "you touch" (fam.)
fyttepro		 fyn tepro, "you touch" (fam.)
fynttepro
sy tepro, "you touch"
syttepro		 syn tepro, "you touch"
synttepro
lo tepro, "he touches"
lottepro		 twav tepro, "they touch"
twavttepro
ly tepro, "she touches"
lyttepro		 twav tepro
ai tepro, "it touches"
aittepro		 twavttepro
õn tepro, "one touches"
õnttepro		 mim tepro, "some touch"
mimttepro

meueluoned, "fall silent," ni:

Note: this is a -ned verb, and hence it is an "experiencer"; the "n" at the end of the conjugated verb is a reminder of that.

Singular Plural
y meuueluon, "I fall silent"
ymeuueluon            		 tsõ meuueluon, soys meuueluon, "we fall silent" (excl/incl)
tsõmeuueluon, soysmeuueluon
fy meuueluon, "you fall silent" (fam.)
fymeuueluon		 fyn meuueluon, "you fall silent" (fam.)
fynmeuueluon
sy meuueluon, "you fall silent"
symeuueluon		 syn meuueluon, "you fall silent"
synmeuueluon
lo meuueluon, "he falls silent"
lomeuueluon		 twav meuueluon, "they fall silent"
twavmeuueluon
ly meuueluon, "she falls silent"
lymeuueluon		 twav meuueluon
ai meuueluon, "it falls silent"
aimeuueluon		 twavmeuueluon
õn meuueluon, "one falls silent"
õmeuueluon		 mim meuueluon, "some fall silent"
mimeuueluon

hejvvandi, "be absent," avi:

Note: This is a "stative" or -Ndi verb. It can be either agentive or experiential, but the "n" at the end of the word does not necessarily indicate non-agency; it is merely what remains when you remove the infinitive suffix.
Note: most -Ndi verbs undergo a change in stress when they are conjugated: hejvvandi /hEj'vand@/ (hezh VAHN duh) to hejvan /'hEjvan/ (HEZH vahn):

Singular Plural
y hejvan, "I am absent"
yhhejvan            		 tsõ hejvan, soys hejvan, "we are absent" (excl/incl)
tsõhhejvan, soyshhejvan
fy hejvan, "you are not there" (fam.)
fyhhejvan		 fyn hejvan, "you are absent" (fam.)
fynhhejvan
sy hejvan, "you are absent"
syhhejvan		 syn hejvan, "you are absent"
synhhejvan
lo hejvan, "he is absent"
lohhejvan		 twav hejvan, "they are absent"
twavhhejvan
ly hejvan, "she is not there"
lyhhejvan		 twav hejvan
ai hejvan, "it is absent"
aihhejvan		 twavhhejvan
õn hejvan, "one is absent"
õnhhejvan		 mim hejvan, "some are missing"
mimhhejvan

c. Tense in the active voice: ii. Simple (and Progressive) Past.

To express the simple past, Teonaht suffixes the tense particle -el to the absolute form of the verb:

y teproel, "I touched";
y meueluonel, "I fell silent";
y hejvandel, "I was absent."

But this form is used primarily in subordinant clauses, or with the dual pronouns; in main clauses, by far the most common way of expressing the simple past is to prefix the tense particle to the pronoun. To avoid ambiguity with the third personal singular feminine, the first person pronoun changes form to become ry:

TEPROREM, "touch," vt.

Singular Plural
elry tepro, "I touched" eltsõ tepro, elsoys tepro, "we touched" (excl/incl)
elfy tepro, "you touched" (fam.) elfyn tepro, "you touched" (fam.)
elsy tepro, "you touched" (for.) elsyn tepro, "you touched"
elo tepro, "he touched" eltwav tepro, "they touched"
ely tepro, "she touched" eltwav tepro
elai tepro, "it touched" eltwav tepro
elõn tepro, "one touched" elmim tepro, "some touched"

In the -ned and -ndi forms of the verb, final -n and -d are carried with the wandering tense particle:

nelry meuueluo, "I fell silent," delry hejvan, "I was absent."

This feature, seemingly whimsical, gives important advice about the agent status of the tense inflected verb:

MEUELUONED, "to fall silent," ni.
KEBÕNED, "to fall," ni.

(Note that in this particular construction (with the fronted tense particle), this verb undergoes a change in emphasis from meueluo /'mejEljo/ to meuueluo /me'jEljo/)

Singular Plural
nelry meuueluo, "I fell silent"
nelry kebõ, "I fell"		 neltsõ meuueluo, nelsoys meuueluo, "we fell silent" (excl/incl)
neltsõ, nelsoys kebõ, "we fell"
nelfy meuueluo, "you fell silent" (fam.) nelfyn meuueluo, "you fell silent" (fam.)
nelsy meuueluo, "you fell silent" nelsyn meuueluo, "you fell silent"
nelo, nely, nelai meuueluo, "he, she, it fell silent" neltwav meuueluo, "they fell silent"
nelõn meuueluo, "one fell silent" nelmim meuueluo, "some fell silent"

NOTE: what we call the "imperfect" in Teonaht doesn't exist as a separate tense. "I was sleeping" is expressed using the simple past, usually with an adverb (lal) to indicate "at that time": nelry lal dwerme man kebonel li'eton: "I was sleeping when the tree fell" (literally: past-I at-that-time sleep, when fall-past the tree"). See the section on adverbs for coverage of this usage.

c: Tense in the Active Voice: iii. Simple (and progressive) Future:

Just like the simple past, the simple future is expressed in other than the main clause or with the dual pronouns as a suffix: -es:

ennyves, "will eat"
kebõnes, "will fall"
dõvindes, "will make merry."

And just as with the simple past, the Law of Detachability pertains, and the tense particle prefixes the pronoun:

REM VERBS NED VERBS NDI VERBS
esry ennyve, "I will eat" nesry kebõ "I will fall" desry dõvin, "I will make merry"
etsõ ennyve "We (excl) will eat"
esoys ennyve, "We (incl) will eat" 		netsõ/nesoys kebõ "We will fall"
 detsõ/desoys dõvin
esfy/esfyn ennyve "you (fam) will eat" (sing/pl)
esy/esyn ennyve "You (form) will eat" 		nesfy/nesfyn kebõ "You will fall" desfy/desfyn dõvin "You will make merry"
eslo/esly/esai "He/she/it will etc." neslo/nesly/nesai "He/she/it will etc." deslo "he/she/it will etc."
estwav/ezdwa "they will etc." nestwav/nezdwa "they will etc." destwav/dezdwa "they will etc."
esõn/nesõn/des õn etc. "one will"
ezmim/nezmim/dezmim "some will etc."

d. Aspect

The active voice of the Teonaht verb and its simple prefixes can be modified further by three aspectual particles which express habitual, completed, and potential action. I call them the consuetudinal, the completive, and the inchoative, and you have two options in their formation. Either they combine with the simple tenses in a contraction that prefixes the pronoun, or the simple tense prefixes the pronoun and the aspectual suffixes the verb.

d.i. The Consuetudinal: -om

The consuetudinal expresses habitual action, action that occurs at regular times, action that is intermittent and ongoing and without definite ending. It covers the meanings expressed in English by "used to," and "frequently." Teonaht makes a strong distinction between immediate present and habitual. In modern English, the simple present (in absolutive form) represents the habitual: "I go to meetings on Tuesdays," whereas the progressive can mean not only the immdediate present, but intention: "I'm working on the computer (this very moment)," "I'm going to the movies." In Teonaht, it's the other way around: the simple present is used as the immediate present and takes no endings, whereas the habitual was originally a progressive ending with connotations of intentionality. Now it is used to mean anything ranging from "I paint for a living" to "we will be visiting you frequently when we move to your neighborhood." It is expressed by the suffix -om (which, yes, is subject to the law of detachability). Originally, it combined agglutinatively with the suffixes for simple past and future tense:

-elom/omel (past habitual)
-esom/omes (future habitual)
But now it has taken on these modified forms in the first option available to the speaker:
-olm (past habitual)
-ob/op/os (future habitual)
By itself, -om is present tense:

ry ennyvom,
omy ennyve,
 "I habitually eat"		 ry kebnom,
nomy kebõ
 "I often fall"		 ry dõvindom,
domy dõvin,
 "I frequently make merry"

And to make things even more complicated, and to provide the speaker with more dizzying options than ever, you can also combine tense and aspect in the second option:

elry ennyvom, "I habitually ate"
esry ennyvom, "I will normally eat"
Here is a paradigm for the past tense in the first and third persons with the uses of the prefixed olm. Notice the epinthetic vowel inserted before the "m" with pronouns beginning with "l." I have also given you the alternative combination:

Singular Plural
olmy ennyve, "I used to eat,"
nolmy dwerme, "I frequently slept,"
dolmy dovin, "I often made merry." OR:
elry ennyvom, "I used to eat,"
nelry dwermom, "I frequently slept"
delry dõvnom, "I often made merry"		 olmtsõ ennyve, "We (excl) used to eat," nolmsoys dwerme, "we (incl) were accustomed to sleeping,"
dolmsoys dõvin, "we used to make merry." OR:
eltsõ ennyvom, "we used to eat"
neltsoys dwermom, "we used to sleep"
delsoys dõnom, "we often made merry"
olimlo ennyve,, "he used to eat"
nolimly dwerme, "she used to sleep,"		 dolmtwav dõvin, "they habitually made merry." OR:
elo ennyvom
nely dwermom, "she used to sleep"
delai dõvnom "it used to make merry" (??) (just a grammatical example!)

The future consuetudinal requires a fuller paradigm to accommodate its variations--namely the use of ob before pronouns beginning with a voiced consonant, op before pronouns beginning with an unvoiced consonant, oms in front of ai, and oz in front of mim. Add nob/nop/noms for the ned verbs, of course, and likewise dob/dop/doms for the ndi verbs. And not to forget the elegant variation!

Singular Plural
obry ennyve, "I will often/habitually eat
Or: esry ennyvom, etc. 		opsõ ennyve, "we (excl) will often/habitually eat"
opsoys ennyve, "we (incl) will often eat"
Or:
opfy ennyve, "you (fam.) will eat" opfyn ennyve, "you (fam.) will eat"
opsy ennyve, "You (form) will eat" opsyn ennyve, "You (form) will eat"
oblo ennyve, "he will eat"
obly ennyve, "she will eat"
omsai ennyve, "it will eat" 		osdwav ennyve, "they will eat"
opon ennyve, "one will eat" ozmim ennyve, "some will eat"

d.ii The Completive: -uar

The "completive" in Teonaht corresponds roughly to what we call the "perfective": it represents action that has just been completed or finished. It also carries connotations of stopping an action or bringing it to a final close; this meaning is subtle, though, and should be distinguished from the cessative, indicated below by a prefix (bennyve, "stop eating"). Like om, uar combines with the simple past and future tenses, but in the present tense it takes the form of the simple suffix that can be prefixed to the pronoun:

y enyveluar "I have eaten," "I just ate"
uary ennyve "I have eaten," "I just ate"
Simple past and future combined with the completive yields the following forms:
-uarel-/-uarl-
-uares-/-uars-/-uarp-
Here is a partial paradigm of the past completive:

Singular Plural
uarrelry ennyve, "I had eaten,"
nuarrelry dwerme, "I had slept,"
duarrelry dõvin, "I had made merry."		uarreltsõ ennyve, "We (excl) had eaten," nuarrelsoys dwerme, "we (incl) had slept,"
duarrelsoys dõvin, "we had made merry."
uarrelo ennyve,, "he had eaten"
nuarrely dwerme, "she had slept,"		 duarreldwa dõvin, "they had made merry."

Here is the paradigm for the future completive, which like the future consuetudinal has idiosyncratic forms for each pronoun. The second item in the variants given represent more formal Teonaht:

Singular Plural
uabry/uarresry ennyve, "I will often/habitually eat
  		uapõ/uarretsõ ennyve, "we (excl) will often/habitually eat"
uapsoys/uarrepsoys ennyve, "we (incl) will often eat"
uapfy/uarresfy ennyve, "you (fam.) will eat" uapfyn/uarrepfyn ennyve, "you (fam.) will eat"
uapsy/uarresy ennyve, "You (form) will eat" uapsyn/uarresyn ennyve, "You (form) will eat"
uablo/uarreslo ennyve, "he will eat"
uably/uarresly ennyve, "she will eat"
uarsai/uarresai ennyve, "it will eat" 		uarbdwa/uarrezdwa ennyve, "they will eat"
uarpon ennyve, "one will eat" uarzim ennyve, "some will eat"

d.iii. The Inchoative: -ad-

The inchoative is the aspect that indicates action about to be begun, and here I distinguish it from the inceptive ("I begin to work"), which is expressed (see below) by a modal. The inchoative suggests intention, being on the verge of something; it is the opposite of the completive in Teonaht, and in the past it suggests an action interrupted before it could get started; in the present it suggests intention ("I'm going to go, I'm about to go") and in the future it expresses readiness and willingness: "I will be ready to go." The modal expressing desire can also cover this meaning, but with more force: "I want to go." "I'll want to go." Again, see below for this development.

The inchoative has special forms that combine with the past and future tense, but in the present tense it is expressed with the suffix ad that prefixes to pronouns:

ry enyvead "I'm about to eat."
adry ennyve "I'm about to eat."
addelry ennyve "I was about to eat"
aldry ennyve "I was about to eat"
addesry ennyve "I will be ready to eat."
azdry ennyve "I will be ready to eat."
Again, the contractual forms are more vernacular, less formal; or they are used for disambiguation.

Here is a truncated paradigm of the past inchoative, shortened because I'm getting fatigued with the compulsive repetition of forms in HTML:

aldry, addelry, elry ennyvad
 "I was about to eat"
aldzõ, aldzoys; eltsoys -ad
  "We were about to"
alfy(n), addelfy(n), elfy -ad
 "You were about to"
altsy(n), addelsy(n), elsy -ad
 "You were about to"
alto, addelo, elo -ad
 "He was about to"
alty, addely, ely -ad
 "She was about to"
altai, addelai, elai -ad
 "It was about to" aldwav, addeldwav, eltwav -ad
 "They were about to"
aldõn, addelõn, elõn -ad
 "one was about to" alvim, addelmim, elmim -ad
 "Some were about to"
And here it is, exhaustively, with the future inchoative:
azdry, addesry, esry ennyvad
 "I will be ready to eat"
azõ, azoys; addesoys, esoys -ad
  "We will be ready to"
asfy(n), addesfy(n), esfy -ad
 "You will be ready to"
azy(n), addelsy(n), elsy -ad
 "You will be ready to"
aslo, addeso, elo -ad
 "He will be ready to"
asly, addesly, esly -ad
 "She will be ready to"
asai, addesai, esai -ad
 "It will be ready to" azdwav, addezdwav, estwav -ad
 "They will be ready to"
azdõn, addesõn, esõn -ad
 "one will be ready to"
azvim, addezmim, ezmim -ad
 "Some will be ready to"
There. I have recorded the tenses and the aspects. This takes us now to the fraught Mediopassive Construct.

6. The Mediopassive Construct

Talking about the mediopassive in Teonaht is difficult, because it is a construct, and not a voice. It offers special difficulties to classical scholars, where "mediopassive" and "middle voice" are practically interchangeable terms used to refer to the reflexive voice in ancient Greek. We spoke in the last section about the verb in the Active Voice, and so it would follow that we now talk about the Teonaht verb in other voices, but Teonaht doesn't strictly follow Indo-European voice patterns. It has what can be construed as a kind of passive, but that is structured differently, with a periphrastic (see Section no. 12: "Other Uses of the Infinitive Gerund"). Teonaht has a special ending that denotes the intransitive or passive use of an otherwise transitive verb, with the object as subject. Following Trask and other scholars (A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in linguistics, p. 170), I am calling this the "mediopassive" instead of the "unergative" for reasons that will be obvious below. We have a similar construction, of course, in modern English:

The pork cooks up nicely
The jacket wears well
It feels soft

i.e.: The pork is being cooked up (by someone)
The jacket is normally worn well (by anyone)
It is felt to be soft (by the speaker).

In Teonaht, though, the verb in the mediopassive takes the suffix ib in all cases (the Law of Detachability does not pertain, and it's never prefixed) and it puts the "subject," where it is indicated either by the article or by an accusative ending, in the object form, and for this reason I cannot call it "the unergative," because it comes closer to an ergative structure than anything else in Teonaht:
Il korma o benda kwecyb
"The pig well cooks." (pig is patient)
kwecyb used to be the old passive form of kwecyrem, but a new form, using the experiential nominative, is preferred for expressing what we think of as the full passive:
Li korma aid kwecyrem aillis "The pig, its cooking it gets," i.e., "the pig is cooked."
(pig is subject, not patient) Li korma aid kwecyrem nelai lis
"The pig was cooked." (still subject).
The mediopassive is a useful construction because it suggests subjection to an activity that is ongoing rather than finished; the Teonaht passive proper makes no such distinction, as I will explain when I get to that part: "The pig gets its cooking" can mean "the pig is being cooked" or "the pig is cooked." The Mediopassive, however, always suggests "is being cooked."

This form is in use especially with the aforementioned "perception" verbs:

kerem, "see," keib, "looks"
ouarem "hear," ouib, "sounds"
teprarem "touch," teprib "feels"
õlirem "smell," õlib, "smells"
mahomrem "taste" mahombi, "tastes"

Il korma õ benda mahombi
"The pig tastes good."

Likewise:
Il jentwar cosib, "The door closes,"
Il kalalya janeb, "The language speaks (is spoken),"
Il betõ taitafip, "the boy [is] laughed [at]
Il tyeel hsakab, "the rain hurls" (it's raining)
This form is almost never used with intransitive verbs, so it is very rare to find it among the ndi verbs. Conjugation is easy: all the combinations described above pertain to it with the exception that the absolute verb is suffixed by ib:
Il korma haddesai kwecyb/esai kwecybad
"The pig is about to cook."
Ol elry taitafip
"I (me) was laughed at."

7. The Reflexive or Middle Voice

Teonaht has several ways to use the reflexive, known in other languages as "the middle voice": "I wash (myself)," "I get (myself) up" and so forth, where "I" is both subject and patient. The most common way is to use the form of the verb found in the mediopassive, but without the patient construct:

ry silnib (from silnarem, "wash.")
"I wash (myself)" ("I" is in the nominative).
This construction can include intransitives:
Elo janib (from janerem, "speak")
"He spoke (to) himself."
("he" is still in the nominative).

8. The Imperative.

Easy. Suffix an -f, or an -if/of to the verb:

Ennyvef! "eat!"
Euaf "go!"
Kraikaf "stop"
  (admittedly stolen from Vulcan long years ago).
Where a verb ends in an "f", change the stress; often the final "f" is voiced:
taittavif, "laugh!"
To negate it, put vera in front of it:
vera vektof "don't frown!"
A politer form of the imperative uses the simple future:
Il vroky esy cyka, "You will cut the carrots (please)."

9. Alienable and Inalienable Possession: Harem/Anrem and the Uses of "To Be."

Oh, I've labored over this one! How does Teonaht make a distinction between "alienable possession" (things one has that can be given away), and "inalienable possession" (things one has that can't be given away)? Cars, houses, pencils, clothing and such fall into the first category, and fingers, good eyesight, wisdom, and sisters and brothers fall into the second. And if one has something, alienable or inalienable, is it by an act of will?

Essentially, then, there are two types of possession: non-volitional (covering both alienable and inalienable) and volitional (a willful possession of alienable goods). And of the first, there are two ways to express it: with a verb, and with a periphrastic construction using a variety of prepositions.

a. Aned "to have"

This verb is non-volitional, and is used of things or qualities that one has physically or inherently: parts of the body, attributes of the mind, and family relations and inheritance:

Niffodyr tweluenrem lis teuim an
"The gods have retractible claws," a famous saying from The Gospel of Bastet.
Lis teuim, "the gods," is cast in the non-volitional, which usually is never an option for a god. The One God never uses the non-volitional, and despite the semantics, carries out all actions in the volitional. Pagan gods are an exception, although I have seen this expression cast this way: ...les teium ha.

b. Harem, "to own," volitional.

This verb means "to own, possess, acquire," and it can only be used of things one can get and give away. A man can possess a house through the wise saving and expenditure of money, or a thief can possess stolen goods through thievery. But you can't possess a sister, a mother, a thumb (unless its a prosthesis), or kindness, or natural beauty. But what do you do when something has been given you that you didn't ask for?

c. The Periphrastic with Parem, "to be."

This construction is common throughout languages worldwide: you can say, if you want to express the indifference with which you have something in your possession, "a book is with me." You have the book, you can give it away, you didn't go to extraordinary means to get it, it was given you, the house is your parents and you live in it, the car was something you rented, or have temporarily:

Pommol li'aoto; pommol auto-li.
"With me the car; with me a car."
Since the copula, which we have yet to cover in the next chapter, is most often "zero" in Teonaht, you'll have to check ahead to see how to put this in various tenses. But the interesting thing about this construction is that some form of tense is already built into it.
Pommol li'aoto, "with me the car"
means that the car is presently with me now.
To'õl li'aoto, "for me the car"
means that the car will be with me in the future; tanddõl li'aoto, "from me the car"
means that the car was with me and isn't any longer.
Idiom dictates the use of the preposition with certain subjects in the present tense. A dream is never with me but on or at me (arrõl fandy-li); so is cold and heat; a lover is sometimes with me (!) but most often beside me (darnnõl deluanhar-li), as is a friend (frrona). Fear is in me (cellõl doryffano), as is hunger, thirst, curiosity; if heat is in me I have a fever or a lust; if cold is in me then I'm devoid of emotion and life; but understanding is above me, as though it's slightly out of reach (which is why, I suppose, you "stand under" it; a despicable relex, but that's how I explain my invention of it). So is bewilderment and indecision, though, like the sword of Damocles, hanging over me. But if I say that a car is on me, or over me, I'm crushed under it, so one has to mind these idioms.

10. Modal Adverbials.

Teonaht has a form of modal in the "indiclinable" auxiliaries: talrem, hmened, wemned, dihsrem, begrem, miprem, uabrem are indeclinable in that they cannot themselves take tense endings, and instead of being used with the infinitive, as the other auxiliaries are (see below), these are used with the active form of the verb, very often in the same position as a tense particle. They can also prefix to the pronoun, or precede the verb-phrase like an adverb:

Tebnar tal taitaf, "Tebnar can laugh"
Tebnar taitafrem elo deyhsan, "Tebnar desires laughing" ("wants to laugh"); compare:
Tebnar dihs taitaf, "Tebnar wants to laugh."
Here is a list of them; note that they convey meanings we associate with aspect and conditionality: wemned, for instance, is the only verb to express hypothesis, and serves as Teonaht's answer for a subjunctive. Begrem and miprem are the cessative and inceptive respectively:
Talrem, "be able to," "can"
hmened, "be required to," "must," "should"
vesned, "be permitted to"
wemned, "might, would, could"
dihsrem, "want to"
begrem, "cease to"
miprem, "begin, begin to,"
uabrem, "keep, continue to"
With pronouns: In the present tense, you can attach the modal right to the pronoun, as though it's a tense particle:
Tyzwya dihsry ennyve, mai il merelevan elry tal gombre vera
"Tart stew I want (to) eat, but the vegetables could I buy not."
Hmery mal eua, "I have to go now."
Wemry uafla, ky talry de, "I would fly, if I could."
A NOTE about ty and ky: There is no way to express in Teonaht the conditional could, as in our English idiom: "I would if I could." Essentially you say in Teonaht, "I would if I can." But Teonaht does express this difference partially in the distinction made between ty/ky: ty, "if," is used in non-hypothetical cause and effect clauses: ty esry eua, ta uennesry der, "If I (will) go, then I (will) take him." Ty ry demve, ta pre sy, "If I lie (am lying), then you (will) know." But ky is used strictly with conditional or hypothetical expressions and with the use of wemned: Ky mimuafel ryaan, ta wemry uafla, "If wings I have, then would I fly," i.e., "If I had wings then I would fly."

With tenses and aspect

Elry tal ennyve, "I was able to eat"
Eldwa dihs kraika, "they wanted to stop"
Eslo uab nwehsra, "he will continue swimming,"
Uarly mip tokdi, "she has begun to be cruel"
Esry dihs dwermom, "I will want to be sleeping"
With use of the modal, the prefix/suffix combination of tense and aspect is preferred, with modal before the verb in adverbial position. If an actual adverb is called for, that goes between modal and verb:
Eldwa dihs o nimra kraika, "they wanted quickly to stop."
If an adverb modifies the modal then it precedes the modal:
Esry o nwetis dihs dwermom, "I will very much want to be sleeping."

11. Other Auxiliaries.

All other auxiliaries take the infinitive/gerund:

dehsaned, "want," "desire"
garnerem, "like," "prefer"
dorifaned, "fear"
nehsened, "hope,"
prendoned, "await," "expect"
uajarem, "hate"
cotaned, "need"
rendorem, "command"
kraikarem, "prevent"
malkodarem, "advise"
heljjendi ary, "encourage"
nemindi ary, "hasten to"
rohhondi ev, "hesitate to," lit. "shiver at"
hmehhilni ary, "refuse to"
etc.
Examples:
Kresprem yddehsan, "Writing I want," i.e., "I want to write"
Syl kresprem yddeyhshan, "Your writing I want," i.e., "I want you to write"
Rin al elvorn ouaned y prendon, "Concerning my husband hearing I await," i.e., "I'm waiting to hear about my husband"
Kresprem lo malkoda, "Writing he advises"
Syl kraikarem y rendo, "Your stopping I command Ary syl euarem yddovin, "Towards your going I make merry" i.e., "I encourage you to go"
Ain ev deyrem yrrohon, "At doing it I shiver," i.e., "I'm reluctant to do it."
Note that the way to express "I want you to go" is by using the possesive pronoun with the infinitive/gerund. Note also that the -ndi forms furnish a rich source of auxiliaries, but that they must always be accompanied by some form of preposition that changes their meaning. (See the section on Prepositions). For instance, heljjendi ary, "to rejoice towards," as we saw above, means to "encourage," but change the preposition to ev, "by," and you get "I am happy about your leaving," which is not necessarily a compliment. Some of these verbs, like hmehhilni, can only take the unpossessed infinitive with ary: Ary euarem yhhmehil, "I refuse or balk at going"; never "I won't allow you to go"; however ev syl euarem yhhmehil means "I am silent (or disapproving) by your going." The preposition ev, "by," "because of," or rin, "concerning," "about," are used abundantly to express causality: "I grow embarrassed (myeebndi) by/about your behavior." "I am proud (herggendi) by/about your achievement."

Deyrem, "do," "act," "manage."

This verb means "do/act," but it can also mean "to do successfully," "manage":

Kresprem ydde,
"Writing I do," "I manage to write," "I'm successful at writing."
Allõnarem elry dey vera,
"I wasn't able to wait," "I didn't manage to wait." Lit: "Waiting I did not do."
It also functions as a replacement in confirmative sentences for the verb in question:
Ynafar, il kyam essed esly dhar vergo? Te, essy de.
"Ynafar, the book to you will she give?" "Yes, she will."
The Teonaht word te, "yes," is a development of this construction; formerly, there was no word for "yes" in Teonaht, as in Welsh and Japanese today, but one answered with a repetition of the verb, which function was taken over by deyrem.

Matained, "be permitted to."

This auxiliary verb must use the preposition ri/rin, "concerning," or ta, "with the result that":

Ynafar, rin euarem aril enyvo esly hdar matai?
"Ynafar, about going to the dinner will she INT be permitted"?
i.e., "Will Ynafar be permitted to go to the dinner?"
Ta taitafrem omon harym matai
"For laughing HAB.one here is permitted."
i.e., "Laughing is permitted here."
Note the alternative in the modal vesned: ry ves euan, "I am allowed to go," "I may go."

12. Other Uses of the Infinitive/Gerund.

Teonaht has no participles as do our major European languages, except in what look like certain adjectival forms. There is no past participle to express the perfect or the passive, and no present participle to express progressive action. Nonetheless, I will use these aspectual terms to describe certain uses of the infinitive/gerund that take the places of these grammatical forms in English.

a. The Progressive Gerundial

As we have seen above, one can express the progressive somewhat primitively in Teonaht with the adverb mal, "now," before the absolute form of the verb: y mal ennyve, "I now eat," "I'm eating." We have another construction that expresses the inchoative, as explained above, so "I now go" is never taken to mean "I'm just now going." It means "I am going." But a late alternative is to use a modified form of the preposition pom, "with," prefixed to the infinitive: bomhtindelrem y, "With singing I am," i.e., "I am singing." Like our present participle, bomhtindelrem becomes adjectival, and is often used as such:

Le tohda bomhtindelrem, "the singing cat."
The Law of Detachability does interesting things to such verbs, and you can detach and prefix the infinitive particle -rem and infix the pom, although this form is fairly affected:
le tohda revbomhhtindl, "the singing cat."
However, it sometimes helps reduce the clutter. Teonaht seems to dislike having lots of suffixes pile up agglutinatively at the end of a word, and offers this device as an alternative.

NOTE: pom takes the voiced form bom when used in this construction to distinguish it from the conjunct verbs (see the section on prepositions).

b. The Passive Gerundial.

The passive is constructed using the infinitive with the verb lisned, "to get, acquire" "be given," "be burdened with" (through non-volitional means) and a possessive pronoun: ev Tebnar al refodmarem yllis, "By Tebnar my choosing I get." Obviously, it is easier to say Tebnar ol reffodma, "Tebnar chooses me," which is why active constructions are preferred; but this form of the passive is quite efficient if there is no agent:

Al kerem yllis, "my seeing I got," i.e. "I was seen."
Or, without the possessive: Hsobffenrem elo lis, "Denigrating he got," "he was disdained."
The passive gerundial has its variations, especially truncation or syncope of rem:
Al refodmar ev Tebnar elry deyhsan, "My choosing by Tebnar I wanted," "I wanted to be chosen by Tebnar."
Sometimes the gerund or a nominalization is used instead of the infintive, in which case you use the preposition ri/rin:
rinnõl reffodmo ev Tebnar elry deyhsan
"Of me choosing by Tebnar did I want"
or:
diTebnar reffodmo rinnol elry deyhsan, "Tebnar's choosing of me did I want."
The passive, like the progressive, can also be adjectival, and like bomhhtindl it takes a preposition, tsob, a modified form of "under":
Li gwenda tsobreffodma, "the girl under-choosing," i.e., "the chosen girl."
NOTE: as with pom, tsob has been modified from hsob, "under," to distinguish it from the use of this preposition in the conjunct verbs, as in hsobffenrem, "demote," "disdain," used above. (See the section on prepositions).

NOTE: Also like bom, tsob can be infixed between the prefixed gerundive ending and the verb:

Li gwenda la remsob reffodma lylis,
"The girl gets her choosing."

NOTE: There is no real distinction in Teonaht between the "progressive passive" and the "finished passive": in other words, Il commanco tsobennyverem/remsob ennyve, "the feast under consuming," can mean either "the feast being eaten" or "the consumed feast." This is a "weakness" of Teonaht I haven't corrected, nor do I really want to. Ever since Bob Le Chevalier accused us conlangers of producing relexes, and demanded proof that our invented languages were not just fancy codes for English, I decided to leave this the way it is, since so many other languages don't have a one-on-one relationship to each other. What il commanco tsobennyverem means is "the feast subjected to consumption/consuming," so it's perfectly ambiguous whether it is progressive or completed. Perhaps the use of the similar construction in the middle voice can be used to offer a distinction: Il commanco ennyvib distinctly means: "The feast is in the process of being eaten," "The feast consumes," so if we allow ennyvib to acquire participial meaning (with a distinct ending drawn from an old passive)--ennyvebõ--perhaps we could let this suggest completion: il commanco ennyvebõ, "the consumed feast." I don't very much like doing this, though. Both can express both, and it's up to context to make the distinction. Ennyvebõ, however, is a natural for a participial adjective, and can only add to the richness of Teonaht and its variety of expression:

Androfait evdam li htindro htindelebõ
"Beautiful by her the sung song."
Androfait evdam li htindro tsobhtindelrem
"Beautiful by the song being sung."
And actually, if you want the completed passive, I've provided it for you with lisned, which is, I realize now, almost a perfect relex for the English "my wallet got stolen":
Al vilip aid trekorem elai lis,
"My wallet, its stealing did it get," i.e.,
"My wallet was stolen."
Aid ennyvere l'ennvvo lis,
"The meal was eaten."
So there.

c. The Potentive Gerundial

The potentive shows potential ation, and is expressed in modern English by our suffix -able after a verb: doable, drivable, moveable, etc. Like bom and tsob, it is formed from a preposition: to, which in this case is formally not prefixed; informally, it is, and undergoes a spelling and pronunciation change:

to eluanrem, lit. "for withdrawing, taking back":
"retractible."
foddyrn tweluanrem, "retractible claws."
imuiv tovvergorem, "a giveable gift."
õndrresõ tweluenrem, "a retractible promise."
To ennyverem li commanco, "it's an eatable feast" (meaning it suffices).
NOTE: Law of detachability allows you the customary variation when needed:
Remdo ennyve li commanco, "it's an eatable feast."

d. The Aptitive Gerundial

This is a construction that expressives aptitude, habitude, likelihood, and tendency. Part of its meaning is covered in English by the suffix -ive, and it is expressed in Teonaht by using the preposition õm, "of":

õm ennyvrem, "gluttonous," "given to eating,"
õm janerem, "talkative," "gossipy"
õm kresprem, "writerly," "eloquent," "learned"
õm vergorem, "giving," "generous"
om kabmarem, "murderous," "likely to kill"
om dwermerem, "slothful," "given to oversleeping"
om taitafrem, "happy-go-lucky," "given to laughter," "having a sense of humor"
om ouaned, "given to hearing," "attentive,"
om ouarem, "given to listening," "a busybody," someone who's always at the keyhole
om herggendi, "conceited," "given to putting on airs"
etc.
NOTE: Law of detachability: sometimes you'll get ned om oua, "attentive"; revom kabma, "murderous."

11. Negation

The word vera following the conjugated verb negates:

yttepro vera, "I touch not"; "I do not touch."
Vera precedes the verb only when it is a command
Vera vektof! "Don't frown."
One can also negate any positive verb with the prefix vo-, which indicates something more willfully negative than the construction with vera, suggesting in some instances, to "undo":
vodehsanrem, "not want" "shun"
vogarnerem, "dislike"
vodderem, "undo," "unmake"
voddalrem, "be unable to" "bungle"
veteproned, "be numb to," "ignore"
voravvorem, "not love"
vopprerem, "be inorant of"
voennyverem, "fast"
The prefix be- indicates the cessative, or a reversal of an action:
bedeyhsanrem, "to stop wanting"
NOTE: this construction is an adaptation and truncation of the modal begrem, "stop."

The prefix vil- is like Greek dys in that it indicates a bad or poor action:

vildehsanrem, "bad wanting," want something with evil intent.
vilteproned, "bad feeling," "feel bad," "be in pain."
vilmarreadarem, "bad honoring," "dishonor," "pay poor respect to."

12. Interrogation

This one is relatively simple. The interrogative particle is put, like an adverb, before the absolute form of the verb:

il kyam edder elsy dhar vergo?
"The book to him did you INT give?"
Elsy hdar htindelad?
"Did you INT sing about-to?"
"Were you about to sing?"
Le tamolin euil naivvohsy eldwa hdar mareada?
"The children, to the teacher did they INT give praise?"
"Did the children pay respect to the teacher?" Tan hdar uaflom, te?
"Birds INT fly-HAB, yes?"
NOTE: Just like the Nosferati-type aliens in Dark City, the Teonim emphasize their question with a "yes," which roughly means "right?" or "huh?" This goes as well for negatives:
Esy hdar nwehsra vera, te?
"You won't swim, yes?"
The answers to these questions are tehhyn, "yes indeed," or te vera, "not yes" (when confirming the questioners negative question), and vaihhyn when contradicting the questioners positive question: Esy hdar nwehsra? "Will you swim?" Vaihhyn, "not at all."

I guess that about covers the verb. The next chapter will cover the somewhat less complicated copula.